Created: 2026.03.04. 11:12
Each winter, the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Széchenyi István University organizes its one-week international professional programme, the Winter Seminar. This year, the programme focused on freedom of expression. Approximately twenty-five participating students had the opportunity to explore the topic in depth with the guidance of Polish, American, and Hungarian experts, addressing contemporary challenges of the digital age such as online manipulation and hate speech.
The Winter Seminar has been a well-established and widely respected academic programme of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Széchenyi István University for nearly fifteen years, enjoying significant international prestige. This year’s week-long course centred on freedom of expression. Through lectures and workshops, the programme adopted an interdisciplinary approach, combining classical constitutional foundations with current challenges of the digital era, including platform regulation, online manipulation, hate speech, and the issue of algorithmic publicity.
The professional programme was attended primarily by international and Hungarian students of Széchenyi István University; however, participation was also open to external applicants. Students from other higher education institutions, as well as professionals interested in the field, were eligible to earn a micro-credential upon successful completion of the programme. Dr Enikő Kovács-Szépvölgyi, coordinator of the Winter Seminar and Associate Professor at the Department of Modern Technology and Cybersecurity Law, noted that the event attracted international interest, including applications from Germany. In total, approximately twenty-five students took part in the programme. She added that several additional international participants joined the student project workshop held at the conclusion of the event.
Participants were welcomed by Dr Péter Smuk, Dean of SZE’s Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences (Photo: András Adorján)
In his opening address, Dr Péter Smuk, Dean of the Faculty, founder of the Winter Seminar series and programme mentor of the Winter Seminar emphasized that the aim of the seminar is to engage students with issues of democracy that present challenges both in Europe and globally. “This is an interdisciplinary programme that examines the given topic not only from a legal perspective but also through the approaches of related disciplines. This year, the course focuses on rediscovering the concept of freedom of expression, a particularly important and timely issue in our post-coronavirus world increasingly shaped by digital platforms,” he stated.
The academic workshop was enriched by distinguished speakers such as Dr Maciej Kisilowski, Professor at Central European University… (Photo: András Adorján)
…and by Dr Joseph Squillace, Professor at Pennsylvania State University in the United States (Photo: Máté Dudás)
The high professional standard of the workshop was ensured by distinguished speakers including Dr Maciej Kisilowski, Polish professor at Central European University, and Dr Joseph Squillace, professor at Pennsylvania State University in the United States, who taught at Széchenyi István University in the previous semester as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. While Professor Kisilowski analyzed changes in public speeches and broader public discourse, Professor Squillace addressed media manipulation and the “chilling effect,” that is, the phenomenon of self-censorship practiced in order to avoid potential retaliation. In addition to international experts, students also learned from prominent figures of the Hungarian academic and professional sphere, including Dr János Tamás Papp, expert of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority and Associate Professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, as well as Dr Gergely Gosztonyi, Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Senior Research Fellow at Széchenyi István University, and media researcher.
The professional programme of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Széchenyi István University once again proved highly popular among students (Photo: András Adorján)
